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I kinda like the indoctrination interpretation but there's a few big problems with it.

First there's how Joker still crashlands even if you do it, which implies that it's not part of a hallucination or something

secondly and far more importantly, it's possible to finish the game and have Destroy be your only option. That's a pretty shitty indoctrination attempt.

My take on the ending theory is

That everything is physically happening, IE that Shepard says goodbye to Anderson, is lifted on the elevator, and brought to the area where she makes the choice. She actually sees Catalyst, but is heavily under the influence of indoctrination (which is why she doesn't argue with him). He offers the three choices, confident that Shep has invested too much in the Geth or at least in EDI to be willing to destroy her. He presents Synthesis - Indoctrination, or ascendance as a reaper (remember when Saren said he was the pinnacle of evolution, the perfect hybrid of man and machine? That's what the Reapers believe, and they're trying to get you to believe it). They present the second best choice as control - where you become the reapers yourself. Still good from their side of the issue. Destroy is the only risky one, but they can't stop you from getting there once you reach the place in the citadel that you're at, they can only essentially present arguments/indoctrination to try to get you to not take that choice (although they can also try to destroy the crucible while you're deciding. That did happen to me once in game). Then if you select destroy, you're thrown into the beam of the conduit as the Citadel is destroyed, and end up in London. The stuff with Joker crashing still happens, but he's within FTL travel so it's not that big of a deal.

Synthesis and Control also show you Joker crash landing, but in those cases it would be Catalyst communicating to you, through indoctrination, "see? You saved your crew! Aren't you an awesome hero?"

except that, game mechanics wise, that is a really stupid ending. You only get the other two options if you have a high score. You always can destroy the citadel, and sometimes you can only destroy the citadel, which in this theory, is the only correct choice.

So the game would be punishing you by opening up worse options by you playing the game.

That is stupid.

You can actually be forced into either just Destroy or just Control, depending on what you did with the base

I kinda like the indoctrination interpretation but there's a few big problems with it.

First there's how Joker still crashlands even if you do it, which implies that it's not part of a hallucination or something

secondly and far more importantly, it's possible to finish the game and have Destroy be your only option. That's a pretty shitty indoctrination attempt.

That ending also can have people alive who flat out shouldn't be, according to the Catalyst. And maybe even according to basic logic.

Garrus being with me in the attack and then showing up on the planet is flat out impossible. Also, Shepard breathing in space is impossible though it's not known for sure if there was a protective glass barrier in that section.

I kinda like the indoctrination interpretation but there's a few big problems with it.

First there's how Joker still crashlands even if you do it, which implies that it's not part of a hallucination or something

secondly and far more importantly, it's possible to finish the game and have Destroy be your only option. That's a pretty shitty indoctrination attempt.

My take on the ending theory is

That everything is physically happening, IE that Shepard says goodbye to Anderson, is lifted on the elevator, and brought to the area where she makes the choice. She actually sees Catalyst, but is heavily under the influence of indoctrination (which is why she doesn't argue with him). He offers the three choices, confident that Shep has invested too much in the Geth or at least in EDI to be willing to destroy her. He presents Synthesis - Indoctrination, or ascendance as a reaper (remember when Saren said he was the pinnacle of evolution, the perfect hybrid of man and machine? That's what the Reapers believe, and they're trying to get you to believe it). They present the second best choice as control - where you become the reapers yourself. Still good from their side of the issue. Destroy is the only risky one, but they can't stop you from getting there once you reach the place in the citadel that you're at, they can only essentially present arguments/indoctrination to try to get you to not take that choice (although they can also try to destroy the crucible while you're deciding. That did happen to me once in game). Then if you select destroy, you're thrown into the beam of the conduit as the Citadel is destroyed, and end up in London. The stuff with Joker crashing still happens, but he's within FTL travel so it's not that big of a deal.

Synthesis and Control also show you Joker crash landing, but in those cases it would be Catalyst communicating to you, through indoctrination, "see? You saved your crew! Aren't you an awesome hero?"

except that, game mechanics wise, that is a really stupid ending. You only get the other two options if you have a high score. You always can destroy the citadel, and sometimes you can only destroy the citadel, which in this theory, is the only correct choice.

So the game would be punishing you by opening up worse options by you playing the game.

That is stupid.

Yeah it would make more sense if Synthesis and Control were the two standard endings and Destroy was the unlockable one, sort of like how Morinth works in ME2.

I kinda like the indoctrination interpretation but there's a few big problems with it.

First there's how Joker still crashlands even if you do it, which implies that it's not part of a hallucination or something

secondly and far more importantly, it's possible to finish the game and have Destroy be your only option. That's a pretty shitty indoctrination attempt.

My take on the ending theory is

That everything is physically happening, IE that Shepard says goodbye to Anderson, is lifted on the elevator, and brought to the area where she makes the choice. She actually sees Catalyst, but is heavily under the influence of indoctrination (which is why she doesn't argue with him). He offers the three choices, confident that Shep has invested too much in the Geth or at least in EDI to be willing to destroy her. He presents Synthesis - Indoctrination, or ascendance as a reaper (remember when Saren said he was the pinnacle of evolution, the perfect hybrid of man and machine? That's what the Reapers believe, and they're trying to get you to believe it). They present the second best choice as control - where you become the reapers yourself. Still good from their side of the issue. Destroy is the only risky one, but they can't stop you from getting there once you reach the place in the citadel that you're at, they can only essentially present arguments/indoctrination to try to get you to not take that choice (although they can also try to destroy the crucible while you're deciding. That did happen to me once in game). Then if you select destroy, you're thrown into the beam of the conduit as the Citadel is destroyed, and end up in London. The stuff with Joker crashing still happens, but he's within FTL travel so it's not that big of a deal.

Synthesis and Control also show you Joker crash landing, but in those cases it would be Catalyst communicating to you, through indoctrination, "see? You saved your crew! Aren't you an awesome hero?"

except that, game mechanics wise, that is a really stupid ending. You only get the other two options if you have a high score. You always can destroy the citadel, and sometimes you can only destroy the citadel, which in this theory, is the only correct choice.

So the game would be punishing you by opening up worse options by you playing the game.

That is stupid.

You can actually be forced into either just Destroy or just Control, depending on what you did with the base

This has been bugging me for a while, but at some point it was mentioned that the planet the Normandy plows into at the end of the game would be a familiar one. Is it bad that literally the only jungle planet with two moons is 2175 Aeia (The Idiot Planet). I'd honestly hope that isn't the case but it would be somewhat amusing and horrible that the Nomandy could crash on a planet where the food makes you into a mental midget within a few years.

I kinda like the indoctrination interpretation but there's a few big problems with it.

First there's how Joker still crashlands even if you do it, which implies that it's not part of a hallucination or something

secondly and far more importantly, it's possible to finish the game and have Destroy be your only option. That's a pretty shitty indoctrination attempt.

My take on the ending theory is

That everything is physically happening, IE that Shepard says goodbye to Anderson, is lifted on the elevator, and brought to the area where she makes the choice. She actually sees Catalyst, but is heavily under the influence of indoctrination (which is why she doesn't argue with him). He offers the three choices, confident that Shep has invested too much in the Geth or at least in EDI to be willing to destroy her. He presents Synthesis - Indoctrination, or ascendance as a reaper (remember when Saren said he was the pinnacle of evolution, the perfect hybrid of man and machine? That's what the Reapers believe, and they're trying to get you to believe it). They present the second best choice as control - where you become the reapers yourself. Still good from their side of the issue. Destroy is the only risky one, but they can't stop you from getting there once you reach the place in the citadel that you're at, they can only essentially present arguments/indoctrination to try to get you to not take that choice (although they can also try to destroy the crucible while you're deciding. That did happen to me once in game). Then if you select destroy, you're thrown into the beam of the conduit as the Citadel is destroyed, and end up in London. The stuff with Joker crashing still happens, but he's within FTL travel so it's not that big of a deal.

Synthesis and Control also show you Joker crash landing, but in those cases it would be Catalyst communicating to you, through indoctrination, "see? You saved your crew! Aren't you an awesome hero?"

except that, game mechanics wise, that is a really stupid ending. You only get the other two options if you have a high score. You always can destroy the citadel, and sometimes you can only destroy the citadel, which in this theory, is the only correct choice.

So the game would be punishing you by opening up worse options by you playing the game.

That is stupid.

You can actually be forced into either just Destroy or just Control, depending on what you did with the base

right that's true, but the fact that what would be basically failing the game isn't the only default makes that theory nonsensical.

This has been bugging me for a while, but at some point it was mentioned that the planet the Normandy plows into at the end of the game would be a familiar one. Is it bad that literally the only jungle planet with two moons is 2175 Aeia (The Idiot Planet). I'd honestly hope that isn't the case but it would be somewhat amusing and horrible that the Nomandy could crash on a planet where the food makes you into a mental midget within a few years.

ending

Presumably they crash onto a planet that's within reach of the Charon relay. IIRC, that planet was on the opposite end of the galaxy from Earth, out on the edges of the Terminus.

this is some really compelling evidence for the something something ending theory

Yeah. I'm almost sure that the indoc theory is correct now. But I'm really not sure about the delivery. I mean, they should have given the player a chance to talk to star child and slowly realize what is going on. Sure, letting people figure it out is rewarding if they can figure it out, but the clues are kinda vague.

The audience is not detective novel fans, but people who likes to shoot and enjoy a story at its face value.

There is zero chance this is correect based on how the ending is presented. The information the game gives you does not support it, and it is all supposition based on the player wanting something else.

You care to elaborate? Specifically, please watch the video embedded in the quote tree.

Irrefutable proof that the ME3 endings are visually similar. Good or bad is up to your interpretations and tastes. Visual similarity is not.
2 minutes. No commentary. Spoiler obviously.

this is some really compelling evidence for the something something ending theory

Yeah. I'm almost sure that the indoc theory is correct now. But I'm really not sure about the delivery. I mean, they should have given the player a chance to talk to star child and slowly realize what is going on. Sure, letting people figure it out is rewarding if they can figure it out, but the clues are kinda vague.

The audience is not detective novel fans, but people who likes to shoot and enjoy a story at its face value.

There is zero chance this is correect based on how the ending is presented. The information the game gives you does not support it, and it is all supposition based on the player wanting something else.

You care to elaborate? Specifically, please watch the video embedded in the quote tree.

ending

Again

it's possible, by playing poorly, to only have the option to destroy the reapers

I hate the grey and glass office type multiplayer map, geth pyro's can be a big hassle on it and it can be really hard to revive somebody because all the cover makes my character constantly crouch against/jump over things

Last night I was heavy meleeing baddies so hard that when they'd bounce off of the ground or a wall or whatever, part of their character model would stick to it, with the rest of the body flying off leaving a stretched "string" of their body that would either snap off or pull them back like a elastic band.

I kinda like the indoctrination interpretation but there's a few big problems with it.

First there's how Joker still crashlands even if you do it, which implies that it's not part of a hallucination or something

secondly and far more importantly, it's possible to finish the game and have Destroy be your only option. That's a pretty shitty indoctrination attempt.

and what's more

even if that is what happens, it still does a really poor job of getting that across and doesn't give you any particular sense of failure for picking one of the "indoctrination" endings or a greater sense of success for picking Destroy, other than Shepard living which I don't really see as all that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

It's a shitty job, no argument at all.

Irrefutable proof that the ME3 endings are visually similar. Good or bad is up to your interpretations and tastes. Visual similarity is not.
2 minutes. No commentary. Spoiler obviously.

There are some really really great ideas for how the game could've ended out there
Taken from here

After you take out the Cerberus base, TIM says that all the Reapers have retreated to Earth.

There's a very easy way to defeat the Reapers, if they've collected themselves in one handy solar system.

Specifically, a solar system with a mass relay.

I wish there had been an option for Shepard to say, "Earth is a gutted hellhole and we have a chance to end this without relying on any Prothean space magic. Just drive the damn Crucible into the Charon mass relay."

Sol goes nova, and all the Reapers die. Earth is sacrificed to end the Reaper threat.

i triggered on, which ripped off half the health of an assault trooper. He flew up, smashed into the ceiling, lost another quarter of his health, then bounced off the ceiling and slammed into the ground, which finally killed him

this is some really compelling evidence for the something something ending theory

Yeah. I'm almost sure that the indoc theory is correct now. But I'm really not sure about the delivery. I mean, they should have given the player a chance to talk to star child and slowly realize what is going on. Sure, letting people figure it out is rewarding if they can figure it out, but the clues are kinda vague.

The audience is not detective novel fans, but people who likes to shoot and enjoy a story at its face value.

There is zero chance this is correect based on how the ending is presented. The information the game gives you does not support it, and it is all supposition based on the player wanting something else.

You care to elaborate? Specifically, please watch the video embedded in the quote tree.

ending

Again

it's possible, by playing poorly, to only have the option to destroy the reapers